What else do those people around me who have more than a dozen apartments pursue?

- 01 -

There is a joke about a few Tsinghua graduates taking a taxi back to their alma mater. Along the way, everyone chatted enthusiastically about a classmate who bought a house in Beijing. Everyone sincerely praised him. He was truly a winner in life.

As we were about to arrive at the station, the driver, who had been silent the entire journey, suddenly said earnestly:

My house was demolished and divided into several apartments, but I am just a driver, and you are the future of the country. and hope. If you graduate from Peking University or Tsinghua University and your goal in life is to buy an apartment in Beijing instead of thinking about the future of the country, then there is really no hope for this country.

After finishing speaking, the students who were in high spirits just now lowered their heads in silence.

The famous Tsinghua alumnus Gao Xiaosong also expressed a similar view. Famous schools are important to the country. If Tsinghua students have no idea about the country and society, but are struggling with what kind of job to find, it is really a problem. Responsible for the education of Tsinghua University.

But are these Tsinghua students wrong? Not only do students who work hard in first- and second-tier cities not look down upon them, but they can actually sympathize with them. It turns out that Tsinghua students can’t even afford a house!

Real estate has revitalized China’s economy, but it has also crushed a large number of young people. Houses are life, and houses and a series of livelihood issues derived from them are destined to become a pain for a generation.

As long as a classmate who comes to Beijing to study or work from other places can buy a house in the city, he will undoubtedly be regarded as a winner in life by his peers. What if you already have several or even dozens of apartments at home? I'm afraid I'll gain more than just envy, jealousy and hatred.

Of course I am not such a person, but I am also honored to come into contact with "top" rich people who own several houses.

- 02 -

One of my colleagues is known as the richest man in the company. His family is in a village near the company. Seven years ago, due to demolition, the whole family was divided. Eleven apartments, plus millions in cash.

But the richest man lives a very miserable life. He only wears a leather jacket to work, with two shirts underneath. Every time he finished his meal, the surface of the bowl was so shiny that only oil remained, not even the residue. Sometimes when he was on vacation, we would meet up at the company and say we came to the company to drink some water.

We joked privately that the reason why the richest man became the richest man was because he saved a little bit.

This year the richest man has won the lottery and can buy a car. Everyone was happy to help provide advice. From Toyota to Toyota, Porsche to Lexus, they all recommended luxury cars that they had never touched before. The richest man said calmly: No, I will just buy a mobility scooter, like the Peugeot 308. Sure enough, the richest man will drive a 308 to work next week.

Why is the richest man living in such poverty? He never said it himself. If you analyze the reasons, there may be two reasons.

First, the richest man has lived in poverty since childhood. He talked about how he had no milk to drink shortly after he was born, so his grandma carried him to the sheepfold at night to secretly drink goat's milk. She also had to take a few more sips while the sheep were asleep and didn't react. The richest man probably inherited his family's fine tradition of thrift.

Second, the richest man’s family has very strict rules. Although the old man has money and a house, he has strict discipline on his children and is never allowed to spend money indiscriminately. Moreover, the children at home must work conscientiously and are not allowed to idle around and sit around for nothing.

When it comes to buying a car, the old man made a rule for the richest man: he can only buy it with foreign money, and he is not allowed to touch the family's savings, nor is he allowed to use the rent collected. The so-called foreign wealth refers to the salary earned by oneself, plus the extra money earned from stock trading and investment.

The richest man once revealed to us that during the demolition in his village, the family with the most money gave him 100 million yuan. However, after getting rich suddenly, many families began to spend extravagantly and extravagantly. In the end, not only did they lose their money, but their families also turned against each other over the division of property.

The richest family lives like a normal family precisely because they have always adhered to conservative and strict family rules. It seems that the richest man has seen clearly that it is too easy to destroy a family with money.

- 03 -

When I bought a house the year before last, the owner who sold the house was more than ten years older than me. I called him "Uncle Fang" because he really had ten people in Beijing. Several apartments, and it was not demolished, but built step by step by one's own hard work.

Uncle Fang is a true academic master. He was admitted to the computer science department of Tsinghua University in the early 1980s. This major is usually considered only by the top scorers in the college entrance examination in each province.

He is very business-minded. Not only did he have the courage to bid farewell to the system and leave the country, he was also keenly aware of the significant room for appreciation in real estate early on. He also rented and maintained houses through financing, lending and borrowing, using all his skills. On the road, I saved more than a dozen apartments.

With so many houses, who wouldn’t hurry up and enjoy life? Uncle Fang disagreed. He is still struggling to run his own small company.

But what Uncle Fang is most proud of is not his academic qualifications and house, but his son, who went directly to Stanford from the top high school affiliated to Renmin University in Beijing. This experience is even more brilliant than that of his father!

Uncle Fang shared with me his experience in raising children. He never told his son how many apartments he had at home. He only explained that he rented an office space and rarely even gave his son pocket money. There was no other reason. Uncle Fang didn't want his son's mind to be filled with a sense of superiority since he was a child, so that he would give up studying hard early and end up with nothing but a real estate certificate.

This makes sense. How many countries in the world today that have become extremely rich by selling underground resources have advanced technology and clear politics? If you can lie down on the oil and sleep in, how can you still have the motivation to get up early and work?

But Uncle Fang is by no means simply raising his son in poverty, but has a more far-reaching plan. On the one hand, he does not let his son live a luxurious life, but on the other hand, he spends a lot of money to let his child see the world.

Uncle Fang believes that pretending to be poor is not the final solution. Children must be allowed to see a higher realm and establish higher pursuits. When his son first entered elementary school, he insisted on taking him to travel to Europe and the United States every summer vacation, and he also signed up for high-end interest and specialty classes.

Sure enough, as soon as his son went to school in the United States, he told Uncle Fang that there were outstanding young people like Zuckerberg who determined to change the world at a young age. As for the idea of ??buying a car or a house, I'm afraid it only accounts for less than 5% of their lives. Maybe only students from developing countries can afford to buy luxury cars and mansions.

- 04 -

As the engine of Silicon Valley, the world's technology center, Stanford University has contributed countless talents to the development of high technology. What are Stanford students pursuing? Of course not luxury cars and mansions.

According to the popular question on Zhihu "What is it like to have more than a dozen suites at home", in the values ????of young people in prestigious American schools, what you do itself is more important than what you get for doing it. How much money you make is far more important.

Therefore, college students from prestigious universities are more willing to work in startup companies than in large companies full of bureaucracy and strict procedures. Many people even give up their superior living conditions and go to underdeveloped areas to engage in public welfare undertakings.

If this is difficult to understand, then we can also look at our own historical trajectory.

Fifty years ago, China was also in an era of extreme material scarcity. At that time, it was a luxury to have extra grain and oil at home. If you could get some imported goods, it was not only a luxury, it was simply a symbol of power.

However, today, materials are extremely abundant, and there are many channels for buying foreign goods. As long as the necessities of life are enough, who would keep dozens of bags of rice and dozens of barrels of oil at home to show off their wealth?

The reason why the whole society is now paying attention to houses and housing prices is because we are gradually experiencing the urbanization of the country, and high-quality resources are beginning to be concentrated in a few big cities.

Perhaps in more than ten years, houses will become common necessities of life. And our generation’s obsession with houses will become a joke for future generations.

- 05 -

In China’s big cities at this stage, the significance of houses to young people is so important that it goes without saying. This is largely determined by the objective environment. We cannot just blame young people for their money-worshiping and tacky ideas.

However, no matter how many functions a house has, it cannot escape its ultimate attribute - residence. After all, we still have to study, work, and make contributions. Even if there are ten apartments in the house, even if the additional attributes of the house, such as assets, income, social status, etc., can help people move up a few levels, they cannot replace the necessary growth and struggle in life!

One of my classmates who went to the United States very early to develop his career told me that young people from middle-class American families look for partners based on their education background, thoughts and experiences. When they learned that outstanding young people in China would consider houses and cars as important factors, they said that this was the concept of their ancestors.

This is not because Americans are so noble. In fact, they have long passed the stage of striving for material things. They cannot understand our fear of basic needs, just as we cannot understand their fear of dying when they are full. to do charity and challenge extreme sports.

Houses are for living. If people want to survive, they must solve the problem of food, clothing, housing and transportation, but food, clothing, housing and transportation are definitely not the purpose of survival. The size of the house we live in and the type of car we drive cannot determine our future.

As for those young people who think that having several apartments at home is like a chicken or a dog ascending to heaven, and they are no longer willing to work hard to make progress, not to mention being despised by Americans, I am afraid that it will not be long before even their compatriots look down on them.

A house is a good thing, but it cannot replace people’s knowledge, cultivation, quality and ability. When we really get into work and face one problem after another, it is not difficult to find that the ability to solve problems has nothing to do with external things such as houses and money.

When we grow old, are we qualified to show off to our younger generations how many achievements I have made, how much contribution I have made, how much value I have created for society, and how much experience and efficiency I have improved for users; or How big a house did you live in back then, how much assets did you have in your name, and how much rent did you receive every month?

Young people must work hard to make money to buy a house, and they must work hard for their own future. A house is a bonus for a happy life, but if the candidate's test score is too low, what will happen if it is just a bonus? In addition to houses, do we also want to pursue some spiritual and essential things?

Don’t let your house get in the way!